The Real Living Wage presents a detailed case study of the campaign to promote the Living Wage, a voluntary standard developed by the community organizing network, Citizens UK. The campaign has run for 20 years and has resulted in more than 12,500 UK employers adopting the standard, benefiting many thousands of low-paid workers.

Edmund Heery is Professor Emeritus at Cardiff Business School, where he worked for 25 years before retiring in 2020. Over a long career Edmund has researched a variety of issues within UK industrial relations and published widely. He is the author of three monographs, a subject dictionary, and numerous academic articles and book chapters. In recent years his research has focused on the role of civil society organizations in shaping the world of work and it is this interest that has led to his latest project, a detailed case study of the UK's Living Wage campaign.
Deborah Hann completed her PhD in European Employment Relations at Manchester University in 2009. Deborah joined Cardiff Business School in 2011, after working at Queen's University Belfast and Oxford Brookes University. Her current areas of research interest cover conflict resolution in the workplace, having undertaken projects in conjunction with Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service and Labour Relations Agency, and civil society organisations and civil regulation in conjunction with the Living Wage Foundation. She has published in journals including Work, Employment and Society, Human Resource Management Journal, and Economic and Industrial Democracy. She is currently also co-Chair of Citizen Cymru Wales.
David Nash is a Reader in Employment Relations at Cardiff Business School, where he has worked since 2003. Prior to this David completed his doctoral research at Cambridge University. His research concentrates on the areas of employment regulation and workplace conflict resolution. He is currently undertaking research into the voluntary Living Wage campaign in the UK . He has undertaken research projects for the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service and Labour Relations Agency. David's published work includes articles in the British Journal of Industrial Relations, Industrial and Labor Relations Review and Industrial Relations Journal.

• 1: Civil Regulation


• 2: The Real Living Wage


• 3: The Campaign for the Real Living Wage


• 4: Employers and the Real Living Wage


• 5: Trade Unions and the Real Living Wage


• 6: Public Authorities and the Real Living Wage


• 7: The Impact of the Real Living Wage


• 8: The Significance of the Real Living Wage


• Bibliography